Archive for March, 2012

I made this recipe because it was chosen for a cooking club that I’m a part of. I was really excited to try this, and honestly, I can’t believe I hadn’t made anything like it before. I’ve made two Taco Soup recipes in the past, but both of them involved beef and not chicken. I was definitely looking forward to trying this one.

You may notice one unique ingredient: the beer. I was a little worried about this, especially after adding it to the rest of the ingredients in the crockpot. I’ll just say that it was a very interesting combination of smells. But as it turns out, there was nothing to worry about. The soup was really, really good. It had the perfect amount of spice from the Rotel, and the beer gave it a little bit of a bitter taste. Next time, I might replace the beer with a cup and a half of chicken broth to see which version I like better.

Directions:
Place onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, and tomatoes in your crockpot. Add taco seasoning, and stir to combine. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Cook on low for 8 hours.

At end of cook time, shred the chicken breasts. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup until well combined. Serve topped with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips, if desired.

Honestly, I was never really big into St. Patrick’s Day. It’s fun to wear green and all, but that’s about as far as it goes for me. However, with St. Patrick’s Day rolling around this past Saturday, the grocery had great prices on corned beef and cabbage. I had to take advantage of it!

This meal was delicious! The meat was sweet without being too sweet (I am not a fan of things that are too sweet, but I loved this). I’m also not a huge fan of cabbage, but when you mixed the cabbage with the corned beef, the flavors were amazing.

I bought a 3 pound corned beef roast that I used for this recipe. We plan on using the leftover meat for Reubens later in the week!

Directions:
Trim excess fat from the roast and place the roast in your crockpot. (Throw the seasoning packet away or use it with another recipe.)

In a small bowl, combine the mustard, honey, brown sugar, and cloves, stirring until it forms a paste. Rub the paste all over the roast.

Add any combination of veggies you want on top of the roast. We used half a head of cabbage, a handful of baby carrots, and a couple red potatoes (quartered). You don’t need to add any extra liquid to the crockpot. The meat will provide enough liquid on its own during cooking.

I consider pesto to be a special treat. We don’t have it very often, but I just love it. That’s why I was really intrigued by this recipe for Pesto Meat Sauce when it popped up on What’s Cookin’ Chicago? I couldn’t wait to try it.

This sauce was really flavorful. The pesto was definitely prevalent, but not overpowering by any means. It’s very meaty, too, which makes for a very thick sauce. If you like your pasta sauce a bit thinner, adding in another half can of crushed tomatoes probably wouldn’t hurt. I might do that next time.

I used my 3.5 qt. crockpot and it filled it to the brim! I was really nervous that it wouldn’t fit once I started adding ingredients, but it all worked out ok. Thanks to my mother-in-law giving me a bunch of mason jars for Christmas, I was able to freeze a bunch for easy dinners down the road. (Now that we have a new upright freezer, I’ve been kind of obsessed with making freezer meals.) I froze seven 12 oz. jars of sauce, in addition to what we ate on the day it was made.

Every now and then I’ll come across a recipe that just intrigues me. For whatever reason, I can’t get it out of my head. I think about it and think about it until I can finally put it on the menu.

This very same thing happened to me when I saw the recipe for Curried Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup on Kitchen Stewardship. I was hesitant and curious about this recipe at the same time. It looked good. It sounded good. But would it taste good? I had never had anything like this before, so I really couldn’t imagine how it would taste. Plus, the curry was an up-in-the-air ingredient. Sometimes I like it, but if it’s overpowering, I really don’t. There was no way of guessing how this would turn out.

All I can say, though, is WOW! This soup was so good. Much better than I could have ever imagined. And look how healthy it is! The only unhealthy ingredient is the half-and-half, and with the amount of soup this makes, there ends up being very little half-and-half per serving. It’s so pretty, too! (Plus, as a bonus, this gave me an opportunity to use my new immersion blender. Unfortunately, I have not yet figured out how to use the immersion blender without splattering all over myself.)

Directions:
Place potatoes, carrots, onion, curry powder, salt, pepper, cinnamon, and ginger in your crock pot. Add chicken broth and stir. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. Puree soup in a blender a few cups at a time or use an immersion blender. Stir in maple syrup and cream. Enjoy!